The book is here!by Meredith Farkas

My day started off pretty badly. I woke up and my neck was so stiff and painful that I couldn’t turn my head or lift my left arm. I ended up calling Adam around 1 pm to pick me up from work because I was in so much pain. When we got home, we found a big box at the front door, which I assumed was for Adam since he’s always getting computer gadgets and gizmos from strange places.

You know, even holding it in my hands now, it doesn’t quite feel real. I guess the book itself feels real, but I can’t believe I wrote it. And it’s going to feel even more weird (and scary) when people read it and tell me what they think of it.

What amazes me most about the book is the index. My goodness that index is comprehensive and I have nothing but admiration for the person who had to go through my book and pick out every single person, thing and idea mentioned in 300 pages. They did a great job! I think it’s looking at the index, and seeing everything I mentioned so neatly listed with a page number, that is making this feel much more real. When I have some time, I might make a list of the librarians and libraries mentioned in the book since the index makes it so easy to do that. I know that if someone wrote a book and I was in it, I’d love to know about it.

I’ll be doing a book signing at the Tuesday evening reception at Computers and Libraries (starting at 5:00 pm), which should be even more surreal. I’m still working on the pithy saying to write on the books. Perhaps something like “jump on the cluetrain” or “keep reaching for that rainbow.” I think I might be able to do better than that, but I’m not great at brevity or pithiness. Maybe I should have had a Pithy Saying for My Signing Contest instead of an Alternative Book Cover Contest.

I just want to say a big thanks to everyone who helped me make this book happen, especially my incredibly smart and supportive editor, Rachel Singer Gordon. But really, all of you deserve thanks. You challenged me, inspired me and made me a far better writer and thinker than I was before I started blogging. If I wasn’t a librarian and a blogger, there wouldn’t be a book.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Meredith Farkas

Meredith Farkas is a faculty librarian at Portland Community College in Oregon and an adjunct faculty member at San Jose State University's SLIS program. She is the author of the book “Social Software in Libraries: Building Collaboration, Communication and Community Online” (Information Today, 2007) and writes the monthly column “Technology in Practice” for American Libraries. Meredith was honored in 2014 with the ACRL Instruction Section Innovation Award, in 2008 and 2011 with the WISE Excellence in Online Education Award and in 2009 with the LITA/Library Hi Tech award for Outstanding Communication in Library and Information Technology. She has been writing the blog Information Wants to be Free since 2004.

Congratulations, Meredith! It’s a really fine piece of work, so I’m glad that everyone will now get to see just how fine it is. You can bet I’ll be lining up to have my copy signed, so be thinking about that pithy quote!

As for your stiff neck, chiropractors have saved me many a time (the latest was this week), although I tend to have more lower back trouble than upper spine. You might consider them as well, particularly if it persists.

Hey — I was sure you were going to see my covers and stop the press to have everything re-done.

Seriously, congrats. It’s been a long time and a lot of work coming and I have been waiting a while for it too! And I’m going to bring my spiked elbow pads to CIL so I can keep my spot in line for the signing.